Tuesday, August 24, 2021

Dunkirk? Not So Much

 If like me, you have been watching the disaster unfolding in Kabul, you are amazed at the incompetence and lack of devotion to duty that is currently on display in the hierarchy of the American military.  Under Joe Biden's watch, with the willing assistance of Lloyd Austin and Mike Milley, the greatest military in the world is reduced to a laughing-stock, mocked by our enemies.

The disgraced American general, David Petraeus calls it a Dunkirk moment, but even that is a pale comparison. At Dunkirk, the British military managed to extricate 338,226 troops in the 10 days between May 26 - June 4, 1940.  And, they did it all with 1930s technology.

Nor is it a Saigon moment.  As Mark Steyn so eloquently writes:

It is not just that General Milley and the Joint Buffoons of Staff cannot plan; they cannot execute. Compare the 2,500 Americans evacuated from Kabul over this last week to the 7,000 Americans and allies choppered out of Saigon in just nineteen hours. Can Milley do anything in nineteen hours other than call his tailor and order up his next row of ribbonry?

That is a good question.  Our beribboned generals did not lose Bagram, they gave it away and now are reduced to just one runway while our enemy controls access to the airport and allows flights to leave.  The Taliban can shut down that one runway whenever they are ready, they are just not ready yet. They are having too much fun raping, looting, and murdering.

I am trying to recall a time in which the US military was so thoroughly humiliated, and it may be the Greasy Grass Fight.

4 comments:

Retired Cop said...

If you've had much experience with the U.S. military, you know they have a plan for everything. There are staff people who do nothing but compile operations plans, review other peoples plans, revise plans due to changing circumstances, and update them as to how current they are.

We have been in Afghanistan for twenty years. On day thirty, someone began drawing up plans for evacuating American personnel and equipment from the country. There will have been options for various timelines, options to include cooperation with other nations, And options for withdrawal by treaty versus withdrawal under fire.

When the Biden administration came in, they knew that getting out of Afghanistan was a major priority for them. You have to believe that Sec Def at least told the Joint Chiefs to brief him on said plans. That should have immediately cranked up procedures to begin recovering supplies, equipment and personnel from around the country and slowed or stopped the influx of replacement parts, equipment and personnel.

The fact that nothing stopped shows incompetence, or planned failure. Since Biden (or his handlers) isn't calling for resignations, that makes this a planned operation to destroy morale and reduce troop readiness.

God help us, and God Save America!

dogsledder said...

This was not just stupidity, it was an act of treason.

Retired Cop said...

Exactly!!!

Old NFO said...

RC- Yeah, they are buried in the safes, and the admin is 'winging' it... dammit...